Clothes-washing machine



May 20, 1952 G. P. CASTNER CLOTHES WASHING MACHINE 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 Filed April 2. 1949 FIG. Y

INVEN TOR George P. Casrner May 0, 1952 G. P. CASTNER CLOTHES WASHING MACHINE 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 Filed April 2. 1949 FIG.

FIG. l3

INVENTOR George P Costner Patented May 20, 1952 STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,596,980 CLOTHES-WASHING MACHINE George P. Gastner, Webster City, Iowa A plication April 2, 1949,- S erial no. 5,113

1 Claim.- 1

This invention relates to clothes washing machines and methods and will be described as applied to a domestic clothes washer. u p

The washing principle of this machine involves a direct grasping rubbing action on the clothes suspended in the wash water to rotate the clothes by this pulling and pushing action, thus to wash and to rinse the clothes while they are so propelled circularly in the tub. The operating principle, unlike the machines of the prior art, depends on angularly applied grasping action on the clothes themselves and not to water washing action created by water currents. Moreover, the

rinsing and transferring action on the clothes to complete the washing action on all sections of the clothes is efiected by the same angular grasping rubbing action on the clothes.

I prefer to use the simple unidirectional rotating principle to actuate my clothes dasher because'it provides the simplest and most effective action with the least inertia losses by the mechanism. This principle has been widely applied ing blade action in a rotating dasher is too severe a clothes action and should be avoided for this reason. I have developed an angular grasping and slipping action that provides angular slip rubbing instead of the abrupt flatwise short radius radial impeller vanes or the like of the prior art. I have developed a relatively narrow grasping blade angularly positioned with respect to the radii and removed from the center of the rotating rubber to describe an angular and orbital motion that gives a gentle but efiective grasping, rubbing and quick release action on the clothes. The release action is assisted by water currents developed by a concave recess adjacent to the blade at the proper release areas of the blade.

A particular object of the present invention is to provide a gentle grasping, rubbing action on the clothes which will cause them to be moved in a circular path within the tub by this clothes grasping contact, thus to re-circulate and to rinse the clothes while changing their positions for complete washing action.

Another object is to provide an angular rubbing and discharge action on the clothes assisted by hydraulic action from a concave recess that avoids harsh short radius impeller contact with the clothes while rapidly discharging the clothes in a continuous manner that impinges the clothes 2 on one another to provide re-circulation and redistribution of the clothes within the washer tub.

. A further object is to provide an angular grasping dasher having clothes contacting and rubbing vanes arranged to revolve in an orbital path to provide the desirable slipping and rubbing action that will grasp, rub and quickly discharge the clothes coming in contact with the rubbing vanes.

A further object is-to provide low rubbing vanes moving in an angular orbital path that present the minimum hazard to the clothes in the tub and the hands of the operator.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a clothes washing machine and a method of washing clothes that employ the, foregoing principles.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in novel combinations, arrangements and functional relationships of elements in the clothes washer and of steps in the clothes washing method, as set forth in the following specification and pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawings,

Figure 1 is atop plan view, partly broken away, of one form of my washing machine employing a' rectangular tub and having an orbital rubbing dasher to contact and to move the clothes through a vertical path;

Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation View of my washing machine as it would appear on th section lines 2--2 of Fig. l and showing by arrows the vertical circular path of the clothes in the tub;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of one form of my orbital vaned dasher showing two straight vanes positioned crosswise and spaced away from the center of the dasher;

Fig. 4 is an elevation view of the dasher shown in Fig. 3; as well as a portion of the tub;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary cross section view of rrny gasher taken on the section lines 5-5 of Fig. 6 is a cross section view of my dasher taken on the section lines 66 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 7 is a plan view of another form of my dasher employing straight vanes having angular discharge ends to assist in quickly discharging clothes from the dasher;

Fig. 8 is a plan view of still another form of my dasher employing curved vanes for the purpose noted;

Fig. 9 is aplan view of still another form of my dasher employing short convex vanes positioned Fig. 10 is a fragmentary typical cross section view of the low end of the vane used on my dasher as it would appear on the section lines ll6 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 11 is a fragmentary typical cross section view of the high end of the vane used on my dasher as it would appear on the section lines I l--Il of Fig. 3, and showing by.the arrow R the releasing water currents from the concave section of the dasher;

Fig. 12 is a sectional plan view of a modified form of my washing machine employing a rectangular tub carrying a rubbing ring and having a further form of my dasher as it would appear on the off section lines l2-l2 in Fig. 13;

Fig. 13 is a sectional elevation view of my washing machine as it would appear on the section lines l3-I3 of Fig. 12 and showing by arrows the vertical circular path of the clothes in the tub;

Fig. 14 is a fragmentary typical cross section view of my rubbing ring as it would appear on the section lines I4l 4 of Fig. 13; and

Fig. 15 is a fragmentary typical radial view of my rubbing ring as it would appear on the curved lines 5 of Fig. 13.

Now referring to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, I show a clothes washing machine embodying my invention and including a tub 26 which I prefer to form in a comparatively narrow rectangular form for a purpose later to be explained. The tub has a rounded bottom 20b and a dasher recess 207' in which is mounted a disk-like dasher 2| in a vertical position on a conventional power drive shaft 22. The details of the dasher and drive shaft mountings are conventional and will not be described. Also, the power means to operate the drive shaft is the conventional motor andpulley drive arrangements that are not shown or described in detail, although the pulley that is fixed to the outer end of the power drive shaft 22 is illustrated at 23. The dasher 2| is rotated unidirectionally in a counterclockwise direction as shown by the arrow A on the dasher. The clothes are similarly rotated in a counterclockwise circular vertical path within the tub as indicated by the arrows B. It will be noted that the center of the dasher 2| is located approximately centrally of the tub bottom 20b. This arrangement is to facilitate the rotation of clothes around the tub and to avoid jamming of the clothes in the tub and damaging rubbing contact with the dasher. It will be understood and appreciated that I desire to freely rotate the clothes around the tub in the upstanding circular path of the arrows B, and below the water level indicated by the dotted line W.

It will further be noted that I provide upright vanes on my dasher 2| in order to grasp portions of the clothes and pull them into rubbing contact with the dasher. The tub 20 is purposely made narrow in order to bring portions of the clothes into grasping contact with the dasher vanes, thus to effectively draw all portions of the clothes into rubbing dasher contact. Further, as the clothes are discharged from this dasher contact, they impinge on other clothes in the tub in order to effect the circular travel of the clothes through the tub. It has been my observation that this direct mechanical action on the clothes is more effective and consistent than water currents from radial bladed impellers. This is particularly true with moderate and heavy clothes loads which commonly interfer with impeller water circulation.

Now referring to Figs. 3 to 6, inclusive, I showa flat disk dasher body 24 on which is mounted two tapered cross vanes 25 and 26. The cross section of the vane 25 is well shown in Fig. 10 as it would appear on the section lines Iii-l0 of Fig. 3 and the cross section of the vane 26 is well shown in Fig. 11 as it would appear on the section lines ll-ll of Fig. 3. It will be noted that the taper on the vanes 25 and 26 runs in opposite directions and I have indicated the high and low ends of the vanes in all cases, H representing the high end of each vane and L representing the low end of each vane. The normal rotation of the dasher 2| counterclockwise is indicated by the direction arrow A in all cases. Adjacent the outer leading faces of the vanes 25 and 26 are concave depressions 21 and 28 in the upper face of the dasher disk 24. These depressions 21 and 28 are well illustrated in Figs. 5, 6 and 11 and are provided to create outward clothes releasing water currents on the high sides of th dasher vanes 25 and 26. These outward Water currents are well illustrated by the arrows R in Figs. 5 and 11.

It is well understood that upright vertical vanes have a decided wrapping and grasping action on submerged fabrics. This grasping action is minor on low vanes and increases with the height of the vane. However, in my vertically mounted dasher 2| the outwardly projecting tapered vanes induce the clothes into a sliding grasping action as the vane moves in its angular orbital path and thus a slipping, rubbing effect is accomplished on the fabrics, which rubbing effect is augmented as the clothes progress from the low to the high end of the vane. The centrifugal force is normally sufficient to release the fabrics, but in order to more quickly release them and reduce the tension on the fabric, I provide the concave depressions 21 and 28 in the dasher body 24 adjacent the high side of the vanes 25 and 26 and these depressions create outward water currents that assist the release of the vane grasping tendencies to more rapidly release the fabric and force the fabric into the body of the liquid of the tub and into impinging contact'with other clothes. Thus a more continuous and complete rotary rubbing movement is imparted to the batch of clothes in the tub.

It will be noted that the dasher disk 24 as shown in Fig. 4 is almost completcly'nested in the tub recess 261' and thus only the-outwardly projecting vanes 25 and 26 extend withinthe tub 20 beyond side wall thereof.

The non-radial angularly moving vanes as described in Figs. 3 to 6, inclusive, may be varied to accomplish similar but varied results. I illustrate such possible variations in Figs. 7, 8 and 9.

In Fig. 'I I show in this form of the dasher 3| angular ends 35a and 36a which naturally increase the release tendency of the vanes 35 -and 36 by their increased arcuate angularity, the adjacent depressions 31 and 38 being provided for the purpose'previously noted.

In Fig. 8 I show in this form of the'dasher 4| reverse curved vanes 45 and 46 which provide quick clothes grasping effects on the low ends L because of their sharper entering angle; However, the reverse angularity on the high ends H of the vanes 45 and 46 in conjunction with the coacting concave depressions 41 and 48 provide for quicker release of the clothes from blade contact.

In Fig. 9 I show in this form of the dasher 5| the use of short convex vanes 55 and 5 6 spaced around the center of the dasher and with typical concave recesses 51 and 58. Such a dasher has increased release action and is advantageous for heavy loads.

Although I described my rotating dasher 2| as vertically mounted, it will be understood that I mean substantially vertical because angular mounting may be used to produce similar results.

Now referring to Figs. 3 through 11, in describing my dasher, it will be observed that I employ a substantially flat circular disk having outwardly projecting tapered vanes extending crosswise on the face of the dasher at points removed from its center. These cross vanes extending somewhat chordlike across the face of the circular dasher present an angular or slantwise face to the clothes as the dasher revolves in the direction indicated by the rotating arrows. It will be carefully observed that my vanes travel slantwise to the radii in an orbital path around the center of the dasher. This arrangement produces a sliding contact that is less harsh and destructive than radial vanes with their fiat and twisting contact. Moreover, this angular sliding contact in conjunction with the outwardly directed water currents from the adjacent concave recesses release the clothes more rapidly and thus the clothes are rubbed and impelled in the circular paths as above described. The grasping, rubbing and releasing action of the. vanes is assisted by the increasing outward projection of the tapered vanes as clearly shown in the drawings. Although I use outwardly projecting vanes as clearly shown in Figs. and 11, I have found that vanes tapered from one-eighth to one-quarter inch from the face of the dasher are effective for average washings. However, I have used vanes tapered from one-quarter to three-eighths inch from the face of the dasher without serious damage and wear on the clothes. It is also worthy of note that the orbital rotation of my angular vanes presents no danger to the hands of the operator.

Now referring in detail to Figs. 3 to 9, inclusive, it will be observed that I have shown several variations of my vane structures. All of these structures perform satisfactorily, although there is some preference depending on the type of clothes being washed and the amount of the loads. I will not discuss the dashers in detail, except to point out that for the average household washings, the dashers 2| and 4| respectively shown in Figs. 3 and 8 appear to be the optimum.

In washers of this type in the prior art, studied effort has been made to avoid the grasping contact of the impeller. In some of the old machines the impeller has been placed to extend above the water line in order to make the paddles clear. In some of the later impellers the vanes on the impeller have been minimized by a low convex contour to prevent grasping contact with the clothes while providing water circulation in the tub by suction and discharge from these low radial vane impellers. Naturally, a minimum of the vane contact is provided to grasp and rub the clothes. As a result, the clothes in normal loads are rotated rather slowly and largely as a result of the suction and discharge of water currents from the rotating radially vaned impellers.

In my machine I purposely minimize the impeller water action features, including both suction and discharge. This is particularly true under loaded conditions and I use small outwardly projecting vanes to grasp and rub the clothes in a slantwise movement and non-radial manner clothes.

on the face of the dasher. I also provide means for definite grasping, rubbing and quick discharge of the clothes and depend on this grasping and discharging action to impinge the clothes upon themselves thus to rotate and re-arrange the clothes as they are propelled in a circular manner around the tub. I provide means to rotate the clothes in this circular manner effectively, and thus my clothes load is more rapidly circulated than the machines of the prior art.

'I avoid radial vane action to provide quicker but slantwise contact and quick discharge of the I minimize suction and radial water currents and depend on actual clothes contact with my dasher as the rubbing, re-arranging and discharging means for washing.

In View of the foregoing it will be understood that I have provided not only an improved clothes washer that is operative upon a novel principle, but I have provided a novel and improved method of washing clothes, employing my clothes washer.

Referring now to Figs. 12 to 15, inclusive, of the drawings, I show a modified form of a clothes washing machine embodying my invention and including a tub 60 of the general form previously described and a dasher 6| carried by a drive shaft 62 rotated unidirectionally in the counterclockwise direction as indicated by the arrows A in order to efiect a similar rotation of the clothes in the tub 69 as indicated by the arrows B below the water level indicated by the line W. In this form of my washer the dasher 6| comprises a substantially disk-like body 64 having a centrally disposed cross ledge providing the vane edges 65 and 66 and the adjacent depressions 61 and 68, whereby a washing action upon the clothes in the tub 60 is obtained that is similar to that previously described.

However, in this form of my washer the rear wall 601 of the tub 60 supporting the drive shaft 62 is fiat and carries a rubbing ring 10 surrounding the dasher 5|. The ring 10 projects outwardly from the wall 60;; a distance substantially to the plane of the face of the dasher 6|, although preferably terminating just therebelow so that the face of the dasher 6| projects slightly further into the tub 60. The face of the ring 10 is provided with a series of fiutings arranged spirally therearound and tapered inwardly in the clockwise direction at an angle to the radial direction toward the center of rotation of the dasher 6|.

The flutings H provided on the face of the rubbing ring 10 assist in the quick release of the clothes from the dasher 6| during operation and produce an additional rubbing action upon the clothes in order to obtain rearrangement of the clothes in a very efficient manner in the upstanding circular path so as further to enhance the washing action of this form of my washer. Although the washing action upon the clothes is enhanced by the rubbing ring 10, the action is gentle upon the clothes since the flutings H are smooth and present no sharp edges.

Preferably the rubbing ring 10 is of separate construction as described, but substantially the same effect may be obtained by embossing the wall 60a, of the tub 60 to provide the fiutings directly therein. Also it will be understood that the dashers 2|, 3|, 4| and 5| may be employed in the tub 60 in conjunction with the rubbing ring 10 with good effect and likewise the dasher 6| may, of course, be employed in the tub 20 to ob tain the washing action described therein.

In view of the foregoingit will be Lmderstood that this modified form of my washer obtains an additional washing action as described and thus effects an additional step in my improved method of washing clothes.

In both forms of my clothes washer the rotating dasher produces circulation of the washin liquid in a substantially upstanding path in the counter-clockwise direction in the tub so that the clothes moving therewith are first moved into the face of the dasher to be lightly grasped and then quickly discharged therefrom outwardly into the tub so as to be redistributed and rearranged in the upstanding washing liquid current before they are again moved into the face of the dasher. Thus, the circulation of the washing liquid insures movement of the clothes into contact with the face of the dasher without the usual suction at the face of the dasher and the consequent frothing of the washing liquid thereat and the resulting reduction in the contact between the clothes and the face of the dasher.

While there has been described what I, at present, consider to be the preferred embodiment of my invention, modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and I intend to cover in the appended claim all such modifications as fall within the true scope of my invention.

I claim:

In a clothes Washing machine including an upstanding tub for containing clothes and washing liquid; a dasher plate mounted for rotation in a substantially upstanding position within said tub and adjacent to the side thereof and in a submerged position therein with respect to the contained washing liquid, means for rotating said dasher plate unidirectionally, a relatively shallow outstanding vane carried on the outer face of said dasher plate and removed from the center of rotation thereof and extending in a crosswise to radial direction with respect to the center of rotation thereof, a rubbing ring mounted within said tub on the side thereof and in adjacent surrounding relation with respect to said dasher plate, means including said vane for causing said dasher plate to grasp the clothes by an angular grasping and slipping contact therewith, means including said rubbing ring contacting the clothes for discharging the clothes from said dasher plate, and means including the coaction of said two last-mentioned means for moving and rearranging the clothes in a substantially circular upstanding path in said tub.

- GEORGE P. CASTNER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 100,513 English Mar. 8, 1870 211,598 Shidel Jan. 21, 1879 636,556 Randleman Nov. 7, 1899 1,665,959 Graham Apr. 10, 1928 2,005,641 Stanitz June 18, 1935 2,034,244 Mikulasek Mar. 17, 1936 2,089,559 Kirby Aug. 10, 1937 2,149,987 Altorfer Mar. 7, 1939 2,455,043 Calhoun Nov. 30, 1948 2,478,188 Gibson Aug. 9, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 274,113 Great Britain Aug. 2, 1928 

